Wenn es um die Wahl einer Domain-Strategie geht, sind die beiden häufigsten Optionen für internationale Websites: Die Verwendung mehrerer Länderdomains (ccTLDs - länderspezifische Top-Level-Domains) oder die Gruppierung aller internationalen Versionen in einer globalen Domain (gTLD - generische Top-Level-Domains). Dieser Artikel zeigt anhand einer Fallstudie und der SEO-Theorie auf, wann und warum es sinnvoll sein kann, von einem Multi-ccTLD-Ansatz zu einer Single-GTLD-Strategie zu wechseln. Wenn du dich entscheidest, deine eigene internationale Website von ccTLDs auf eine gTLD umzustellen, findest du in diesem Artikel auch einige technische Ratschläge für die Migration selbst.
>>> Du bist in Eile? Hier geht es direkt zur TL;DR Zusammenfassung!.
Es sollte klar sein, dass es in Sachen SEO nie eine Einheitslösung gibt. Dieser Artikel argumentiert für die SEO-Vorteile einer globalen gTLD-Lösung, aber es gibt Fälle, in denen der Wechsel von ccTLDs zu einer gTLD kein Wachstum bringt oder sogar schaden kann. Bitte achte darauf, dass du immer projektbezogene Entscheidungen triffst und nichts in der SEO-Branche als absolute Wahrheit ansiehst, auch wenn es viele Fallstudien und Meinungen gibt, die in eine bestimmte Richtung weisen.
Die Sichtbarkeit von NFON in Österreich ist nach der Migration sprunghaft angestiegen. Der organische Traffic stieg in den ersten fünf Monaten nach der Migration im Vergleich zum Vorjahr um 90%, und die über die organische Suche generierten Leads wuchsen im selben Zeitraum sogar um 100% im Vergleich zum Vorjahr (Quelle: meine Original-Fallstudie - NFON waren zu der Zeit mein Kunde, also hatte ich Zugang zu ihren Zahlen, als ich die ursprüngliche Fallstudie schrieb - mit ihrer Erlaubnis).Fairerweise sollte erwähnt werden, dass die Migration auch eine Umgestaltung beinhaltete, die sich sicherlich positiv auf die Leistung auswirkte, sodass der gesamte Zuwachs nicht allein dem Domainwechsel zugeschrieben werden kann. Werfen wir einen Blick auf die Entwicklung in Großbritannien, wo die Umgestaltung einige Wochen vor der Domainumstellung stattfand, was es etwas einfacher macht, die Auswirkungen der verschiedenen Komponenten zu vergleichen.
You might have noticed that the above screenshot includes a shorter time frame after the domain migration than the Austrian one we looked at earlier. That’s because in 2017, an interesting little episode happened, that I would really like to share with you:
The NFON UK team were unhappy with their situation. The growth they had got from the common European domain was not enough for them and they thought that all of the SEO budget they were contributing to the European website would be better invested in der NHS ihrer eigenen britischen Domain. Also lösten sie Artikel 50 aus, verließen nfon.com im Mai 2017 und verschoben ihre Inhalte auf nfon.co.uk. Das passierte mit ihrer Sichtbarkeit in Großbritannien:
Unfortunately, their new UK domain just didn’t have the power to maintain the rankings the international gTLD had previously had in the UK. And worst of all, the UK domain was now competing with the international English language version on nfon.com for rankings in the UK (and even being outranked by it).
The good thing is that SEO is not politics and that there were decent people in charge, so the mistake could be fixed fairly quickly:
NFON is now stronger than ever before in the UK. So if you live in the UK, or you’re mad about Brexit for other reasons: There’s still hope!
To wrap this case study up, let’s have a look at NFON’s domestic market, the country they started in and that they have been active in the longest.
Zum ersten Mal überhaupt konnte NFON in den drei Jahren nach der Domainumstellung über einen längeren Zeitraum hinweg ein stabiles organisches Traffic-Wachstum in Deutschland, ihrem Heimatmarkt, erzielen. Natürlich spielen hier mehrere Faktoren eine Rolle, wie z. B. die Fokussierung auf Inhalte und eine solide technische Grundlage, aber ich habe Grund zu der Annahme, dass die internationale Domainstrategie einer der wichtigsten Erfolgsfaktoren für NFON ist. Einige mögliche Gründe dafür werden wir später in diesem Artikel erörtern.
Hinweis: Mir ist nicht bekannt, was die jüngste Volatilität hier verursacht hat, aber ich vermute, du hast sie auch in den Grafiken für Österreich und Großbritannien oben bemerkt. Es ist interessant, wie eng die Entwicklung auf den verschiedenen Märkten zusammenhängt, nicht wahr? Dazu später mehr...
Maria Saez empfahl, die jüngste Migration von ccTLDs zu einer gTLD zu prüfen, die Aggreko vornahm, und ich empfehle dir, ein Tool wie Sistrix, Searchmetrics oder SEMrush zu benutzen, um die Verbesserung der Sichtbarkeit selbst zu überprüfen:
Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to share any more details about this case – you know what it’s like…
Sometimes, it’s a good idea to ask people in your network if they know of any interesting cases, because often they will be able to share examples with you, even if they haven’t been (or can’t be) made public.
Wenn du mehr über dieses Thema erfahren möchtest und was du tun kannst, um zu verhindern, dass negative Ranking-Signale von einer Länderversion allen anderen Versionen schaden, solltest du Bartosz' Fallstudie über picodi.com, which I already recommended above.
Before you decide to merge several country domains into one international domain, you should ask yourself if your country domains actually have something to share with each other and if you’ll be able to define an einheitliche internationale SEO-Strategie für alle Märkte einzuführen. Wenn du nur versuchst, die gute SEO-Leistung deines Heimatmarktes auf andere Länder zu übertragen, wird das vielleicht nicht so gut funktionieren. Aber selbst wenn du diese Voraussetzung für den Erfolg erfüllst, kann noch viel schiefgehen. Lies weiter, um zu erfahren, wie du sicherstellst, dass deine internationale Domainmigration ein Erfolg wird.
This dramatic loss was due to several factors, most of which we already discussed above. The website was migrated to a completely new domain that didn’t have the same authority as the old one and all URLs that were previously ranking were redirected to new URLs. But the main problem was that almost all of these redirects passed through redirect chains. The migration and redesign involved URL changes, so the IT department had received a redirect list with matched old and new URLs. They knew exactly which target the old nfon.net URLs were supposed to redirect to. Unfortunately, they decided to set up a simple redirect rule on nfon.net that redirected all nfon.net URLs to their exact equivalents on nfon.com. Then, they set up another set of redirects that took care of these new (virtual) URLs on nfon.com to redirect them to the previously defined targets. This resulted in 99% of all old nfon.net URLs passing through a redirect chain. And if a redirect results in a loss of SEO performance, then a redirect chain does so even more, as the redirect process is simply repeated more than once.
When switching domains, all redirect rules should be set up directly on the old domain and it should be avoided to generate intermediate URLs, even if this is often the easiest way for the involved developers.
Fallstudie: NFONs internationales SEO-Wachstum nach der Umstellung auf eine internationale gTLD
Werfen wir zunächst einen Blick auf das Beispiel eines Unternehmens, das nach der Migration mehrerer Länderdomains zu einer internationalen gTLD ein erhebliches Wachstum erzielte. NFON ist ein Anbieter einer Cloud-Telefonanlage . Das Unternehmen ist derzeit in 12 Ländern tätig und sieht sich selbst als europäischen Marktführer in seinem Segment. Im Jahr 2014 hat das Unternehmen damit begonnen, seine Länderwebsites von separaten Domains in Unterverzeichnisse auf einer gemeinsamen internationalen Domain (nfon.com) umzuziehen. Hier siehst du, wie ihre SEO-Leistung in den verschiedenen Märkten von dieser Umstellung profitiert hat.Österreich - Höher wachsen als die Alpen
Österreich war einer der ersten Märkte, in denen NFON aktiv war, und die österreichische Domain (nfon.at) war bereits seit 2010 online, bevor sie Anfang 2015 in die neue internationale gTLD überging. Dem Unternehmen ging es in Österreich gut - es gab SEO-Aktivitäten, die speziell für die österreichische Domain und den österreichischen Markt durchgeführt wurden, und seine SEO-Performance in Österreich war im Vergleich zu seinen nationalen Konkurrenten gut. Hier siehst du, was mit ihrer Sichtbarkeit passierte, als sie von nfon.at zu nfon.com/at/ wechselten:
Die Sichtbarkeit von NFON in Österreich ist nach der Migration sprunghaft angestiegen. Der organische Traffic stieg in den ersten fünf Monaten nach der Migration im Vergleich zum Vorjahr um 90%, und die über die organische Suche generierten Leads wuchsen im selben Zeitraum sogar um 100% im Vergleich zum Vorjahr (Quelle: meine Original-Fallstudie - NFON waren zu der Zeit mein Kunde, also hatte ich Zugang zu ihren Zahlen, als ich die ursprüngliche Fallstudie schrieb - mit ihrer Erlaubnis).Fairerweise sollte erwähnt werden, dass die Migration auch eine Umgestaltung beinhaltete, die sich sicherlich positiv auf die Leistung auswirkte, sodass der gesamte Zuwachs nicht allein dem Domainwechsel zugeschrieben werden kann. Werfen wir einen Blick auf die Entwicklung in Großbritannien, wo die Umgestaltung einige Wochen vor der Domainumstellung stattfand, was es etwas einfacher macht, die Auswirkungen der verschiedenen Komponenten zu vergleichen.
UK - Was passiert nach Brexit?
Die Ausgangssituation für NFON in Großbritannien war zum Zeitpunkt der Domainmigration ganz anders als in Österreich. NFON war gerade erst in den britischen Markt eingetreten (eines der schwierigsten Gebiete für SEO in Europa) und hatte Mühe, den organischen Traffic in diesem Land zu steigern. Die Inhalte in Großbritannien wurden unter der Domain nconnect.com gehostet, die selbst eine gTLD (und keine ccTLD) ist, aber nur die britische Version der NFON-Website enthielt. Das Redesign (das auch die österreichische Version der Website erhalten hatte, als sie auf nfon.com migriert wurde) fand einige Wochen vor dem Domainwechsel in Großbritannien statt und hatte keine spürbaren Auswirkungen auf die SEO-Sichtbarkeit der Domain. Der eigentliche Schub kam, nachdem die britische Version der Website von nconnect.com zu nfon.com/gb/ migriert wurde, ohne dass zur gleichen Zeit andere Änderungen vorgenommen wurden:
You might have noticed that the above screenshot includes a shorter time frame after the domain migration than the Austrian one we looked at earlier. That’s because in 2017, an interesting little episode happened, that I would really like to share with you:
The NFON UK team were unhappy with their situation. The growth they had got from the common European domain was not enough for them and they thought that all of the SEO budget they were contributing to the European website would be better invested in
Unfortunately, their new UK domain just didn’t have the power to maintain the rankings the international gTLD had previously had in the UK. And worst of all, the UK domain was now competing with the international English language version on nfon.com for rankings in the UK (and even being outranked by it).
The good thing is that SEO is not politics and that there were decent people in charge, so the mistake could be fixed fairly quickly:
NFON is now stronger than ever before in the UK. So if you live in the UK, or you’re mad about Brexit for other reasons: There’s still hope!
To wrap this case study up, let’s have a look at NFON’s domestic market, the country they started in and that they have been active in the longest.
Deutschland - Von SEO-Chaos zum stabilen Wachstum
Before the domain migration, NFON’s German content was hosted on nfon.net (another gTLD that was only used for one country), a domain with a history that goes back as far as 2007. The SEO performance of the old German NFON domain had highs and lows, with the most difficult time between the autumn of 2013 and the spring of 2014, when it took them more than half a year to recover from a manual penalty they had received for unnatural link building. Back then, lots of businesses thought that they could win at SEO by investing in link building, without taking care of their content and technical foundation. Until the end of 2013, NFON was obviously one of them. After the mess had been cleaned up and a new international SEO strategy had been agreed upon, the German website version was migrated from nfon.net to nfon.com/de/, and here’s what happened to their SEO visibility in Germany:
Zum ersten Mal überhaupt konnte NFON in den drei Jahren nach der Domainumstellung über einen längeren Zeitraum hinweg ein stabiles organisches Traffic-Wachstum in Deutschland, ihrem Heimatmarkt, erzielen. Natürlich spielen hier mehrere Faktoren eine Rolle, wie z. B. die Fokussierung auf Inhalte und eine solide technische Grundlage, aber ich habe Grund zu der Annahme, dass die internationale Domainstrategie einer der wichtigsten Erfolgsfaktoren für NFON ist. Einige mögliche Gründe dafür werden wir später in diesem Artikel erörtern.
Hinweis: Mir ist nicht bekannt, was die jüngste Volatilität hier verursacht hat, aber ich vermute, du hast sie auch in den Grafiken für Österreich und Großbritannien oben bemerkt. Es ist interessant, wie eng die Entwicklung auf den verschiedenen Märkten zusammenhängt, nicht wahr? Dazu später mehr...
Toll, aber das ist nur ein Einzelfall :/ Und was ist mit Korrelation vs. Kausalität?
Du hast Recht, das ist einfach ein Fall und beweist nicht zweifelsfrei, dass die Domainfusion etwas mit dem darauf folgenden SEO-Wachstum zu tun hatte. Wenn du Interesse an einer anderen, sehr ähnlichen Fallstudie hast, könnte dieser Artikel interessant für dich sein: "Eine globale Domain vs. mehrere TLDs für eine internationale Marke? 841 Prozent mehr Sichtbarkeit - Fallstudie." von Bartosz Góralewicz. It describes a case that has a lot in common with the NFON case described above, but on a much bigger scale, and with the same result: Strong growth after merging several country websites on different (sub)domains into one international domain with subdirectories. Bartosz’s article also includes a lot of very valuable advice for the migration itself, so I highly recommend it. It’s not easy to find more case studies with similar scenarios, which is probably mainly due to two factors:- Ein Umzug von einer Länderdomain zu einer internationalen Domain kommt nicht jeden Tag vor, daher gibt es nicht viele Fälle, um damit zu beginnen.
- Viele Unternehmen fühlen sich nicht wohl dabei, ihre Daten und Details zu ihren Strategien zu teilen, deshalb gibt es noch weniger Fallstudien als Fälle.
Maria Saez empfahl, die jüngste Migration von ccTLDs zu einer gTLD zu prüfen, die Aggreko vornahm, und ich empfehle dir, ein Tool wie Sistrix, Searchmetrics oder SEMrush zu benutzen, um die Verbesserung der Sichtbarkeit selbst zu überprüfen:
Esteve Castells schickte mir ein Beispiel für ein Unternehmen, das eine Länderdomain mit einem negativen organischen Traffic-Trend auf eine bereits bestehende gTLD verschmolzen hat und es geschafft hat, den Trend umzukehren:@Aggreko_Intl Das multinationale Unternehmen, für das ich vor vielen Jahren gearbeitet habe, ist kürzlich von mehreren ccTLDs auf eine gTLD umgestiegen. Ich war nicht in den Prozess involviert und kenne daher keine Details, aber es muss eine großartige Umstellung gewesen sein. Schau es dir an!
- M. Saez (@msaezfern) 2. Mai 2018
Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to share any more details about this case – you know what it’s like…
Sometimes, it’s a good idea to ask people in your network if they know of any interesting cases, because often they will be able to share examples with you, even if they haven’t been (or can’t be) made public.
Warnung - Dies könnte für dich nicht funktionieren
In den letzten Jahren habe ich mit mehreren SEOs gesprochen, die versucht haben - und scheiterten - diese Art von Erfolg zu wiederholen, nachdem sie von ähnlichen Fällen gehört hatten, dass ihre Konkurrenten mit dieser Art von Domain-Strategie erfolgreich waren. Es ist wichtig zu wissen, dass die Domainstrategie nur einer von vielen Faktoren ist, die bei der internationalen SEO eine Rolle spielen, und dass nicht jeder Zusammenschluss von Länderdomains zu einer internationalen Domain zum Erfolg führt. Werfen wir einen Blick auf einige theoretische Konzepte, um besser zu verstehen, warum und wann der Zusammenschluss mehrerer Länderdomains zu einer internationalen Domain zu einem organischen Traffic-Wachstum führen kann und wann nicht.Warum kann der Wechsel von Länderdomains zu einer internationalen Domain die SEO-Leistung einer Website verbessern?
Der Titel dieses Artikels lautet "Migration von ccTLDs zu einer gTLD", aber dir ist vielleicht aufgefallen, dass im oben beschriebenen Fall von NFON nur eine der drei betrachteten Länderdomains tatsächlich eine ccTLD war. Das liegt daran, dass es in dem Szenario, in dem mehrere Länderdomains zu einer internationalen Domain zusammengelegt werden, nicht wirklich um ccTLDs vs. gTLDs geht. Es geht vielmehr um mehrere Domains im Vergleich zu einer Domain. Meine Theorie zur Erklärung der Tatsache, dass du organischen Traffic-Zuwachs generieren kannst, indem du einfach mehrere Domains zu einer Domain zusammenlegst, ist, dass es bestimmte Ranking-Signale gibt, die leichter mit Seiten auf derselben Domain geteilt werden als über Domains hinweg. Diese Ranking-Signale sind hauptsächlich linkbezogen. Die Relevanz, die eine Länder- oder Sprachversion einer Website durch ihre Links von anderen Websites erhält, wird leichter mit den anderen Länder- oder Sprachversionen der Website geteilt, wenn diese anderen Versionen auf der gleichen Domain gehostet werden. Barry Adams erklärt das Phänomen folgendermaßen:Barrys Ansicht nach wird das Ranking durch den PageRank beeinflusst, der über Links von einer Seite zur anderen weitergegeben wird, wobei Links zwischen Seiten auf derselben Domain mehr PageRank weitergeben als Links zwischen Seiten auf verschiedenen Domains. Das ist eine viel ausgefeiltere Art zu sagen, was ich oben gesagt habe. Beachte, dass Barry dieses Konzept auch auf Seiten auf verschiedenen Subdomains ausweitet, nicht nur auf Domains. Er erläutert das Thema auch in seinem aktuellen Artikel "URLs, Crawling und PageRank; Grundlagen der Suchmaschinenoptimierung", which I highly recommend (not just for the parts that are relevant to this topic). One of the best resources on the ccTLD vs. gTLD topic that I know is the article "Wie wählt man zwischen Subdomain, Subfolder oder ccTLD für die internationale Expansion" von Stephen Kenwright. Stephen geht auf verschiedene Faktoren ein, die bei der Entscheidung für eine internationale Domainstrategie zu berücksichtigen sind. Er betont die Risiken, die mit dem Wechsel von ccTLDs zu einer gTLD verbunden sind, ein Thema, auf das wir später in diesem Artikel näher eingehen werden. Zu den Vorteilen des Hostings mehrerer Länder- oder Sprachversionen unter derselben gTLD vertritt er folgende Meinung:Dies. Meine Theorie ist, dass der PageRank-Dämpfungsfaktor für domainübergreifende Links größer und für Links innerhalb derselben (Sub-)Domain kleiner ist.
- Barry Adams ? (@badams) 14. März 2018
"Um dein internationales SEO zu verbessern, wenn du eine ccTLD oder eine geografisch ausgerichtete Subdomain verwendest, brauchst du mehr Budget als bei einer gTLD mit Unterverzeichnissen, da beides buchstäblich separate Websites sind. Du wirst nicht den gleichen Nutzen aus den Links ziehen, die auf deine Domain zeigen und 'nach unten fließen'.Stephen agrees with the positions outlined above, namely that pages on the same domain can benefit from each other’s links better than pages on different domains, and, just like Barry, he claims that this is also valid for pages on different subdomains. It’s probably time to address the elephant in the room: The ccTLD vs. gTLD discussion has a lot in common with the subdomain vs. subfolder (aka subdirectory) discussion. For those of you that aren’t familiar with the different positions, here’s a good starting point:
Die Parallelen zwischen den Diskussionen sind deutlich: In beiden Fällen geht es um die Frage, ob es tatsächlich linkbezogene Ranking-Signale gibt, die zwischen Seiten auf derselben (Sub-)Domain leichter ausgetauscht werden als zwischen Seiten auf verschiedenen (Sub-)Domains. Der Hauptunterschied zwischen den Diskussionen besteht darin, dass es für manche Leute einfacher ist zu akzeptieren, dass es diese Grenze zwischen Domains gibt, auch wenn es schwieriger sein mag, an eine solche Grenze zwischen Subdomains zu glauben. Was ist deine Meinung zu all dem? Ich würde mich freuen, deine Meinung im Kommentarbereich oder auf Twitter zu lesen. Fallstudie von Pinterest über den Wechsel von einer gTLD zu einer ccTLD-Strukturzu erwähnen. Die Umstrukturierung von gTLD auf ccTLD ihnen half, ihren organischen Traffic zu steigern. Das Ergebnis scheint auf den ersten Blick überraschend, denn sie haben sich genau in die entgegengesetzte Richtung der bisherigen Beispiele bewegt. Wenn du genauer hinsiehst, wirst du feststellen, dass sie sich wegbewegt haben von Subdomains on a gTLD to ccTLDs, so they probably weren’t benefitting from shared ranking signals on the gTLD in the first place. Nevertheless, the Pinterest case is a very valuable resource, as it shows that ccTLDs do provide other positive ranking signals, and I suggest you read it and draw your own conclusions. Let’s now talk about some factors that might prevent a merger of ccTLDs into a gTLD from showing the desired positive outcome.Are you in need of 14 case studies to back up the assertion that: Moving subdomain -> subfolder (almost always) increases search traffic Moving subfolder -> subdomain (almost always) decreases search traffic I got your back. Thread /1
- Rand Fishkin (@randfish) 14. März 2018
Warum könnte der Wechsel von Länderdomains zu einer internationalen Domain NICHT funktionieren?
Wie ich bereits erwähnt habe, habe ich mehrere Fälle gesehen, in denen genau diese Art von Domainzusammenlegung nicht zu Wachstum geführt hat oder die SEO-Leistung der Website beeinträchtigt hat. Eine Sache, die die meisten der negativen Beispiele die ich mir angesehen habe, gemeinsam hatten, ist dass sie nur eine starke Domain mit mehreren schwachen Domains zusammengeführt haben. Wenn nur eine deiner Länderdomains eine annehmbare Anzahl guter Links hat, die meisten anderen Domains aber damit zu kämpfen haben, Links in ihren Märkten zu generieren, ist es wahrscheinlich, dass dir eine gemeinsame internationale Domain auch nicht helfen wird. Die Fälle, die ich untersucht habe, in denen diese Art von Domainfusion sich bewährt hat hatten gemeinsam, dass einige der verschiedenen Länderdomains bereits eine Geschichte und gute Linkprofile auf ihren Märkten hatten. Domainwechsel schaden fast immer auf kurze Sicht, besonders dann, wenn du deine Länderdomains in einer völlig neuen gTLD zusammenlegst, die noch keine Vertrauens- und Relevanzsignale bei Google aufbauen konnte. Ein Domainwechsel bedeutet immer, dass alle URLs umgeleitet werden müssen, und umgeleitete URLs neigen dazu, etwas von ihrer SEO-Leistung zu verlieren. Wenn du dich entscheidest, deine Länderdomains zu einer internationalen Domain zusammenzulegen, läufst du immer Gefahr, kurzfristig einen Teil deiner SEO-Performance in deinen stärkeren Märkten zu verlieren, also musst du berechnen, ob die potenziellen Gewinne den Verlust wert sind.Ein weiterer Punkt, den du bedenken solltest, ist, dass sobald alle Website-Versionen in einer internationalen Domain zusammengeführt werden, teilen sie nicht nur positive, sondern auch negative Rankingsignale. Wenn zum Beispiel eine Website-Version in der Vergangenheit schädliche Links generiert hat oder einen hohen Anteil an minderwertigen Inhalten aufweist, kann dies negative Auswirkungen auf die gesamte Domain haben. Und das gilt nicht nur für den Moment der Migration, sondern auch für die Zukunft - sobald alle Länderversionen auf derselben Domain gehostet werden, können neue negative Entwicklungen auf einem Markt sich negativ auswirken auf anderen Website-Versionen. Sobald deine verschiedenen Länderversionen auf der gleichen Domain gehostet sind, ist ihre Leistung eng verbunden, wie wir bereits erwähnten haben, als wir ähnliche Muster für NFONs schwankende Sichtbarkeit in Österreich, dem Vereinigten Königreich und Deutschland diskutierten.
Wenn du mehr über dieses Thema erfahren möchtest und was du tun kannst, um zu verhindern, dass negative Ranking-Signale von einer Länderversion allen anderen Versionen schaden, solltest du Bartosz' Fallstudie über picodi.com, which I already recommended above.
Before you decide to merge several country domains into one international domain, you should ask yourself if your country domains actually have something to share with each other and if you’ll be able to define an einheitliche internationale SEO-Strategie für alle Märkte einzuführen. Wenn du nur versuchst, die gute SEO-Leistung deines Heimatmarktes auf andere Länder zu übertragen, wird das vielleicht nicht so gut funktionieren. Aber selbst wenn du diese Voraussetzung für den Erfolg erfüllst, kann noch viel schiefgehen. Lies weiter, um zu erfahren, wie du sicherstellst, dass deine internationale Domainmigration ein Erfolg wird.
Technische Ratschläge für die Migration von Länderdomains zu einer internationalen gTLD
Es gibt viele Faktoren, die bei der Migration einer Website beachtet werden sollten, aber hier sind die, die für internationale Domain-Migrationen besonders wichtig sind:Weiterleitungsketten vermeiden
Ist dir aufgefallen, dass NFON direkt nach dem Domainwechsel den Großteil seiner SEO-Sichtbarkeit in Deutschland verloren hat?
This dramatic loss was due to several factors, most of which we already discussed above. The website was migrated to a completely new domain that didn’t have the same authority as the old one and all URLs that were previously ranking were redirected to new URLs. But the main problem was that almost all of these redirects passed through redirect chains. The migration and redesign involved URL changes, so the IT department had received a redirect list with matched old and new URLs. They knew exactly which target the old nfon.net URLs were supposed to redirect to. Unfortunately, they decided to set up a simple redirect rule on nfon.net that redirected all nfon.net URLs to their exact equivalents on nfon.com. Then, they set up another set of redirects that took care of these new (virtual) URLs on nfon.com to redirect them to the previously defined targets. This resulted in 99% of all old nfon.net URLs passing through a redirect chain. And if a redirect results in a loss of SEO performance, then a redirect chain does so even more, as the redirect process is simply repeated more than once.
When switching domains, all redirect rules should be set up directly on the old domain and it should be avoided to generate intermediate URLs, even if this is often the easiest way for the involved developers.
Behalte deine alten Domains und SSL-Zertifikate
When switching domains, it is important to redirect all old URLs that are generating organic search traffic and that have external links pointing to them to your new domain. In order to keep the redirects working permanently, you need to stay in control of your old domains, so you should make sure to keep them registered. One issue that is often missed is that the SSL certificates for the old domains also have to be kept. If your old domains had https URLs that are now redirecting to URLs on your new domain, these redirects will only keep working as long as you have a valid SSL certificate for your old domain. In case you are wondering how long you need to keep the old domains and SSL certificates in order to keep the redirects working, the answer is: forever.Aktualisiere alle externen Links, zumindest die, die du kontrollierst
Eine weitere wichtige Aufgabe beim Domainwechsel ist die Aktualisierung aller externen Links zu deiner Website, die du kontrollierst. Dazu gehören Profile in sozialen Medien, alle Arten von Unternehmenseinträgen, auf die du Zugriff hast, Links von anderen Websites, die du oder deine Kollegen bearbeiten können, und so weiter. Du kannst auch darüber nachdenken, Webmaster von Websites anzusprechen, die du nicht kontrollierst und die auf dich verlinken. Es ist immer eine gute Idee, mit den Leuten, die auf dich verlinken, in Kontakt zu bleiben, denn du bist in gewisser Weise von ihnen abhängig. Und es ist auch eine gute Möglichkeit, mehr Menschen von deiner neuen Domain zu erzählen. Manchmal ergeben sich aus einem einfachen E-Mail-Austausch interessante neue Möglichkeiten.Nutze hreflang und die Geotargeting-Funktion der Google Search Console
Achte darauf, dass du auf deiner neuen internationalen Website die verschiedenen Versionen deines Inhalts mit korrekten hreflang-Anmerkungen verlinkst. Für Suchmaschinen wie Google kann es schwierig sein, herauszufinden, an welche Nutzer/innen sich die verschiedenen Inhaltsversionen einer internationalen gTLD richten, und hreflang ist ein Signal, das dabei helfen kann. Wenn deine gTLD Länderverzeichnisse enthält (und nicht nur Sprachversionen), ist es außerdem sinnvoll, für jedes Länderverzeichnis eine eigene Google Search Console-Eigenschaft zu erstellen und die Funktion zur Länderausrichtung zu nutzen, die du findest, wenn du zu Suchverkehr > Internationales Targeting > Landnavigierst. In deiner GSC-Eigenschaft für die gesamte Domain oder in Eigenschaften für Sprachverzeichnisse, die auf mehrere Länder abzielen, stelle sicher, dass du in diesem Menü KEIN Land auswählst.Internationale SEO-Expertenmeinungen
Um das Ganze abzurunden und um einige Themen einzubeziehen, die ich vergessen habe, habe ich einige internationale SEO-Experten, deren Meinung ich sehr schätze, um ihren Beitrag gebeten. Die folgende Frage habe ich ihnen geschickt (zusammen mit einem ersten Entwurf des Artikels): Glaubst du, dass eine internationale Website davon profitieren kann, wenn sie von mehreren ccTLDs auf eine gTLD migriert wird? Warum oder warum nicht? Hier sind die interessanten Gedanken, die sie mit mir geteilt haben:Maria Saez - Der Wechsel von ccTLDs zu einer gTLD ist nicht immer sinnvoll.
Maria Saez ist eine freiberufliche SEO-Beraterin aus Pontevedra (Spanien) mit viel internationaler SEO-Erfahrung. Sie erinnert uns daran, dass die Zusammenlegung von ccTLDs zu einer gTLD zwar zur Verbesserung der SEO-Leistung beitragen kann, eine solche Domainstruktur aber nicht für alle Marken möglich ist und für manche Unternehmen nicht einmal Sinn macht:“I believe that in most cases, the migration to one single domain can be beneficial, however we would always have to look at the specifics of each project. “In general, the aggregation of several ccTLDs into one gTLD makes sense, because, if done properly, you will group the ranking signals from all of those ccTLDs into a single domain, which by logic would strengthen it. If you also take into account the lesser costs and maintenance efforts involved with having to manage just one website instead of several, you would think this is the way to go. And it is for many companies, but not for all. “There are specific companies where, for the nature of their business, it is essential to maintain geographical signals, and a ccTLD is a strong one. For example, business owners from industrial machinery companies have argued to me that for them it is easier be able to start conversations with potential foreign partners or clients when they can introduce their website with a local domain. For example, in Russia, a “company.ru” domain would gain more initial trust than one with “company.com/ru/”. “Also, there are companies that operate in different manners in different countries, sometimes even with different brands, like opel.com, which in the UK is vauxhall.co.uk, and in Spain opel.es. In these cases, it just would not be possible to host all of the websites on one single domain. Would one international domain have a better online visibility? Possibly, but would it fulfil the brand requirements? Not likely. “Again…every project has its specific requirements and restraints, and ultimately, SEO decisions should be made to benefit the overall business strategy.”
Michelle Race - Der Wechsel von ccTLDs zu einer gTLD ist riskant, sei also vorsichtig.
Michelle Rennen ist eine technische SEO-Beraterin bei Ricemedia, einer Agentur für digitales Marketing aus Birmingham (Großbritannien). Sie befürwortet generell den Wechsel von ccTLDs zu einer gTLD, weist aber auf die Risiken hin, die mit einem solchen Wechsel verbunden sind, und gibt Tipps, wie man einen Verlust der SEO-Leistung vermeiden kann:“Moving all existing ccTLDs to one gTLD means that the authority of the gTLD and associated links will benefit all of the website versions under that domain. This can be seen as an incentive to switch, if you have underperforming individual country domains and are not currently undertaking individual SEO efforts for every country. Having all versions under one gTLD can also be easier to manage. “If you do decide to go down the route of migrating to one gTLD, there are a few things to be aware of. If the gTLD is new or has poor authority, this can have a negative impact. If some of the country domains being combined use or have used negative SEO practices, this can also affect the entire gTLD. By using a subdomain or subdirectory, your website version will not automatically be geo-targeted to a certain country as it would if you were using a ccTLD. If aspects such as hreflang tags are not considered or not implemented correctly, this can cause confusion for search engines about the correct country target, especially for sections using the same language but that are for different countries, e.g UK and US. You would also need to make sure that you set up individual Search Console properties for each of the new subdomains / subdirectories and manually set geo-targeting where possible. “Keep in mind that server location is also considered by Google to help with geo-targeting. If you only have one server location for all country versions, you should also consider using a CDN (content delivery network) to help with page loading speed for users from different countries. “Making a move like this also needs a bullet proof migration plan which needs to be carefully mapped out, especially for high ranking pages. Definitely avoid redirect chains! You’ll not want to stop there, you’ll also need a plan in place to update existing backlinks and elements such as Google My Business profiles.”
Jamie Alberico - Wenn du dich für ccTLDs entscheidest, solltest du alles daran setzen.
Jamie Alberico ist eine technische SEO-Expertin aus Denver (USA), die viel Erfahrung mit großen internationalen Projekten hat. Sie erinnert uns daran, wie viel Aufwand es kostet, eine ccTLD-Strategie richtig umzusetzen, was in manchen Fällen auch ein indirektes Argument für den gTLD-Ansatz sein kann:“If you’re going to make the investment for ccTLDs, fully commit. A new ccTLD needs to be for the users it’s intended to reach. That takes money, time, and resources. “Do you have fully (and properly) translated content for the language? Does the content reflect the culture of your customers there? Do your policy pages reflect the country’s regulations and policies? Do you have servers in the country? A slow experience is a bad experience the whole world round. Is the mobile site experience fast and easy to use? Chances are users in that international market primarily browse the web on a mobile device. “Carefully consider the cost of these assets and establish a break even point. (Check out Aleyda's Internationalen SEO-ROI-Rechner). If it’s a new market, analyze the macro and micro conversions by users in the region. “Don’t create a new ccTLD to game rankings. It’s probably not going to work. If you’re creating a new ccTLD domain to better serve your customers, go for it.”
Alexis Sanders - SEO gibt es nicht in einer bestimmten Form oder Größe.
Alexis Sanders ist technische SEO-Beraterin bei Merkle, einer Performance-Marketing-Agentur mit Niederlassungen rund um den Globus. Sie sieht Potenzial in der Konsolidierung von Domains, weist aber auch auf die Risiken von Website-Migrationen hin und betont, dass unterschiedliche Lösungen in verschiedenen Szenarien funktionieren können:“Whenever a site has major changes, especially related to shifts in information architecture and URL alterations, there are going to be significant shifts in organic ranking performance. Search engines rearrange results, evaluating relevance, authority a site has towards the new queries, and confidence that the result is being displayed to the user. In the case of consolidating domains, there is potential to focus link equity and on-page optimizations to target high importance queries (and the users, who require such information). Often times in site migrations the largest risk is highly competitive, non-brand keywords (i.e., queries that aren’t hyper semantically related, like brand terms). “In terms of international strategy, it’s first and foremost vital to ensure all local clientele’s website needs are met. There are multiple methods of achieving success, which should be outlined before engaging in developing a strategy. In Eoghan’s case study, the most brilliant aspect is that it challenges preconceived notions that a site must operate one way to have a successful international SEO strategy. By consolidating domains the site began performing significantly better in search. The beauty of SEO is that it doesn’t come in one shape or size. Every site should work to maximize their potential, which may manifest in various ways.”
Gianna Brachetti-Truskawa - Erwäge eine gemischte gTLD / ccTLD-Lösung.
Gianna Brachetti-Truskawa ist eine internationale und mehrsprachige SEO-Beraterin bei Bold Ventures, ein Software- und Beratungsunternehmen aus Köln (Deutschland). Sie weist darauf hin, dass die Konsolidierung von Länderwebsites möglicherweise keine Option ist, wenn sie ein Rebranding erfordert, und schlägt vor, die Option eines gemischten Ansatzes mit ccTLDs für einige Länder und einer gTLD für andere Märkte in Betracht zu ziehen:“In your aforementioned case, the international website has used the same brand name across all countries. In my opinion, it was definitely the best idea to move to a gTLD, if all risk factors have been considered to prevent from ongoing traffic loss. “However, if some time during their internationalisation a company decided to create a specific brand name for each target market (which can under some circumstances make sense), combining different brands to one because you want to move to one gTLD becomes incredibly more difficult and risky. We’re talking rebranding here. For instance, if the Aufeminin group decided to combine all domains under a gTLD, they’d have to decided which of their brands gofeminin.de, ofeminin.pl, taofeminino.com.br, alfemminile.it, enfemenino.com (Spain), sofeminine.co.uk, and aufeminin.com (France) they’d like to promote to the main brand (or create a new brand that might be well understood, positively connotated and easily remembered and spelled) and redirect all the others to it. Many of these “regional” brands have been around for a long time though, so creating something entirely new is very likely to result in traffic and reputation loss and it is questionable if rebranding would actually be worth the effort. “What’s more, with Google deciding to show domains in SERPs again (after they removed them in mobile search results for some markets in 2015), domain locales trust factors came into play again. Some target audiences, when given the choice, tend to prefer ccTLDs over gTLDs – French users, for instance, might prefer a .fr domain over a .com. Even for users being indifferent towards a .com domain, not all gTLDs are equal. Some are still quite unusual (see the neuen gTLDs, such as .shop, .beer, .amsterdam) and their creative approach might work for some brands, such as startups, and not work for others. Some might be old and from a user perspective not logically or easily associated with the brand, such as .net, *.org. “Of course it is still possible to analyse which domains have the biggest audience and show best performance in traffic and/or revenue and decide to have a mix by just moving a few domains to the new gTLD, and keep the most important ccTLDs for some markets. Companies should be aware that this can increase complexity for the initial migration and future maintenance and closely evaluate if they can dedicate enough resources to deal with this in the long term.”
TL;DR / Zusammenfassung dessen, was wir gelernt haben
- Verschieben internationaler Website-Versionen von mehreren ccTLDs auf eine gemeinsame gTLD kann helfen die SEO-Leistung einer Website verbessern..
- Das Gleiche gilt für Länderversionen auf verschiedenen gTLDs, die zu einer internationalen gTLD zusammengelegt werden.
- Die positiven Auswirkungen eines solchen Schrittes sind höchstwahrscheinlich auf die Tatsache zurückzuführen, dass Seiten auf der gleichen Domain leichter Ranking-Signale miteinander teilen als Seiten auf anderen Domains.
- Unterschiedliche Subdomains scheinen in dieser Hinsicht wie unterschiedliche Domains behandelt zu werden, so dass eine ideale Struktur bei einer internationalen gTLD wäre, Unterverzeichnisse einzuführen..
- Es ist nicht garantiert , dass die Zusammenlegung von Länderdomains zu einer internationalen Domain zu einem SEO-Wachstum führen wird.
- Wenn nur eine der fusionierten Domains vor der Migration über eine signifikante Anzahl und Qualität von Backlinks verfügt, bringt die Fusion möglicherweise kein Wachstum.
- Domainwechsel sind immer ein Risiko für die SEO-Performance einer Website und sollten sehr sorgfältig ausgeführt werden.
- Eine völlig neue gTLD wird es schwerer haben, im Ranking zu erscheinen als eine bereits etablierte.
- Wenn verschiedene Länder- oder Sprachversionen unter der gleichen gTLD gehostet werden, können sie auch negative Ranking-Signale teilen..
- Beim Domainwechsel besteht ein hohes Risiko, dass Weiterleitungskettengeneriert werden. Stelle sicher, dass alle alten URLs direkt auf ihre neuen Ziele umgeleitet werden (und nicht über Zwischen-URLs).
- Alle alten Domains und ihre SSL-Zertifikate müssen behalten werden. Andernfalls funktionieren die Weiterleitungen nicht mehr und die Relevanzsignale gehen verloren.
- Die Zusammenlegung aller internationalen Website-Versionen in einer globalen Domain funktioniert möglicherweise nicht für Unternehmen, die verschiedene Marken in verschiedenen Ländern haben.
- In einigen Ländern gibt es eine starke Präferenz für die lokale ccTLD vs. gTLDs.
- Ein Content Delivery Network (CDN) kann mit Ladezeiten von Seiten rund um den Globus helfen für eine internationale Website, die auf einer globalen Domain gehostet wird.
- Eine ccTLD-Strategie funktioniert nur dann wirklich, wenn eine bestimmte Menge an Ressourcen in jede ccTLD investiert wird, was ein weiteres indirektes Argument für eine gTLD ist.
- Eine Entscheidung für oder gegen eine globale gTLD sollte immer unter Berücksichtigung aller Besonderheiten des Einzelfalls getroffen werden. Es gibt keine Einheitslösung für alle Fälle..
- Eine Mischlösung mit einer gemeinsamen gTLD für einige Märkte und ccTLDs für andere Märkte ist oft eine praktikable Option.
Summary of 57 Comments
Comment Section Highlights & Key Insights
1. Choosing Between ccTLDs, gTLDs, Subfolders, and Subdomains
Recurring Questions:
- Should we merge multiple country sites (ccTLDs) into one gTLD with subdirectories?
- Is it better to localize with ccTLDs (.de, .fr, etc.), subdomains (de.example.com), or subdirectories (example.com/de/)?
- How risky are migrations, and what’s the SEO impact?
Key Advice from the Author:
- A single gTLD with country/language subfolders (like example.com/de/) is generally favored. It helps consolidate site authority, simplifies site management, and tends to improve performance for underperforming country sites.
- ccTLDs can bring local trust and are sometimes necessary (e.g., in China), but Google now treats gTLD subdirectories as strong alternatives.
- Subdomains don’t share ranking signals as efficiently as subfolders; switching to subdirectories often unlocks SEO potential.
- Migrations always carry risk, especially switching domains. Careful planning, proper 301 redirects, and good hreflang implementation are essential.
“The less different versions of your website you have, the easier it is to manage and the better it is for your SEO performance… every version has higher chances of building up a good performance.”
2. Migrations: Risks, Rewards & Best Practices
Many readers shared their experiences (or anxieties) regarding domain migrations:
- Short-term traffic drops are typical after any major change, but with correct redirects and hreflang setup, sites generally recover and benefit long term—especially when consolidating authority.
- Partial migrations (e.g., only certain pages redirected) are discouraged. Redirect all valuable URLs.
- Never run duplicate content across multiple domains—Google usually picks one to rank, and maintaining two sites is unnecessary overhead.
“Domain changes are always risky and you should at least make sure that you redirect all important old URLs on the ccTLDs to their new equivalents on the gTLD.”
3. Hreflang, Localisation, and Authority Transfer
Popular Concerns:
- Will authority be lost if content is split, migrated, or expanded into new languages or markets?
- Does hreflang transfer SEO value?
Clarified:
- Hreflang is essential for international SEO, but it does NOT transfer authority between domains. It only helps Google serve the right version to the right user.
- Authority is only transferred via 301 redirects—not hreflang.
- When launching new market/language versions, start on the main domain when possible to harness existing authority.
4. Special Cases & Nuanced Scenarios
China & Baidu:
- Baidu prefers .cn and local hosting. Subdirectory structure can help, but for China, local strategies may be needed.
Same Product, Different Currencies or Legislation:
- Sometimes, separate directories (e.g., /de/, /ch/) are needed for genuinely different product details, currencies, or regulations.
ccTLD Redirects for “Presence”:
- Merely buying ccTLDs and redirecting them to a main domain does not improve country SEO unless those ccTLDs have real history and backlinks.
5. Practical Examples & Success Stories
- Michael’s migration from subdomains to subfolders led to “stunning results”: visibility and rank improvements in most markets.
- Multiple cases confirm that combining scattered domains/subsites into one gTLD with country-language directories streamlines operations and unleashes “untapped” SEO potential.
6. Decision-Making Frameworks
When to stick with ccTLDs:
- If a country’s users expect or trust the local domain (e.g., .de/.cn), or if there are significant legal, branding, or logistical reasons.
When to move to a gTLD with subfolders:
- If you’re aiming for global reach, have many markets with small sites, want to boost underperforming markets, and simplify management.
Author’s Recommendation to Most:
- Go with a gTLD and use subfolders for languages or countries. Only fragment into more versions when demonstrably needed (different currencies, laws, or strong local branding requirements).
7. Other Noteworthy Tips
- Subdomains or subfolders? Subfolders (“/us/”) usually win for sharing authority.
- Country or language subfolders? Language is simpler unless you have real differences per country.
- Don’t overcomplicate. Aim to minimize the number of site versions for manageability and stronger SEO.
Zusammenfassung
In short:
- Most businesses with international ambitions see the best results by consolidating on a single gTLD (like .com), using logical subdirectories for countries and/or languages, and ensuring careful hreflang and redirect implementation.
- Migrations can supercharge SEO—if done right, with a focus on consolidating authority, reducing duplication, and localizing content where it matters.
- Each case has its nuances, especially for large e-commerce, highly localized markets, or regions like China, but most problems can be solved with this simple, structured approach.
English 
German
57 Antworten
Hallo Eoghan,
great speach at the SMX2016!
I wonder if you have any insights regarding SEO in China? I am working on a website which is operating globally having a subdomain structure:
us.domain.com
cn.domain.com
etc..
The SEO performance in China is by far the worst from all 25 countries we are working with and I wonder how big is the issue for Baidu (and other local search engines) with our server being hosted in Europe and not having a .CN domain.
Would be nice to exchange information on this,
Many thanks,
Michael
Thanks a lot, Michael! I am happy you enjoyed it.
I do not have much experience with .cn domains but as far as I know, Baidu does prefer .cn domains over .com domains. The same goes for Yandex with .ru domains and probably most other local or national search engines.
One big potential I see for the strategy you described above would be a switch from subdomains to directories. Ranking factors aren’t shared across subdomains as easily as they are across directories. I believe a switch like this would help your visibility and traffic in most countries. I cannot tell you if it will help your situation in China, though. Sorry about that.
Ich hoffe, das hilft!
Thanks for your feedback, Eoghan!
Regarding the subdomain structure I am sharing your opinion. Actually I am already preparing the project so that it can be rolled out with the next sprint 🙂
Nice! Let us know how it goes 😉
Hey Eoghan!
Finally we went live with the new URL structure removing subdomains switching to a www-Version of the URL – with stunning results! Visibility is increasing as well as average ranking by 4-5 positions. Only in countries where Google is not dominating the results are not that good. We will do some local SEO to push it it little bit. But overall the migration was successful and the sleepless nights were worth it! 😉
Zum Wohl,
Michael
Hallo Michael,
I’m happy to hear that everything went well for you! Thanks for sharing this information.
When I read articles about international SEO, I am really surprised how little most SEOs know about this very powerful lever in international SEO. Most authors present a ccTLD structure, subdomains on a gTLD, and directories on a gTLD as three equally good options for international websites.
ccTLDs – OK! If you’re the likes of Zalando you can pull it off and ccTLDs certainly have local advantages (mostly non-SEO though). But in my opinion, subdomains on a gTLD are a waste of potential. Your case demonstrates this.
Thanks again for sharing your insights. I am also thinking about re-writing this article and adding some cases that show how much you can gain by merging your international website version into different directories on one subdomain.
Hi.
Thanks for all the info.
Can you help me with one question, please?
I have one .com.br website with some authority, but i want to target some english keywords. What’s the best option for me?
Use subdomain(.com.br/us) or use one newborn .com domain just for these keywords?
Dankeschön
Hi Matt,
Thanks a lot for your comment and your interesting question. As with many questions, the answer is: It depends.
Where is your target audience? If you want to target English speaking users in Brasil, a .com.br domain is fine. If your users are in other countries, a gTLD (generic top level domain) like .com would be better.
Now, if you have two different domains, you are losing potential from an SEO perspective: It is almost always desirable to host all of your content on just one domain. There are a number of domain-wide ranking factors that all subpages on one domain benefit from. These are not shared across different domains though, even if you link them with hreflang-Anmerkungen.
If the future of your business is international, you might want to move your entire content to an international .com domain. This would come with the risk (or almost with the certainty) of a short-term loss of traffic and visibility in Brazil. Changing from an old and established domain to a fresh one without authority always hurts. So this move would only pay off if you see a lot of international potential in the future and if you can wait for middle to long-term profit and survive a short-term dent.
Feel free to send me some more information and additional questions. I would be happy to help you make a good decision 🙂
Thank you for the amazing answer.
I want to target english audience, in the United States.
As you said, the .com is the best option. However, its possible to “link” the .com.br authority to the .com ?
Otherwise the .com will be just one normal domain, without SEO value, right?
Hi Matt,
You can (and should) link the two domains with hreflang (see the link I included in my last comment and feel free to ask me for help).
Unfortunately, hreflang does not pass on any domain authority, so it is correct the way you put it: The new .com domain will start without any SEO value.
I guess it would be a good idea to start off with the new .com domain for the US market, set up hreflang between the two domains correctly, then build up some authority with the new domain and maybe in a couple of years consider moving the Portuguese content from the .br domain to the .com domain.
I’ll be happy to guide you through this if you need any further advice 🙂
Hey Eoghan,
Great article. We are a local business in travel so we operate in just one country (the product is local) but our customers are both domestic as international. We’ve now been acquired by an international company that operates in multiple countries. So now we have local products in multiple countries, targeting the same international (but also domestical) audience.
What would you suggest to do?
Hi Emile,
Vielen Dank für Ihren Kommentar und Ihre interessanten Fragen.
This sounds like a good case for merging all of your content onto one domain, if possible. This can of course only work if you are planning on using the same brand in all countries in the future.
You could then have several language versions of all of your content for your different international audiences. The advantage of merging everything onto one international domain would be that the different country domains could unite forces and share a number of domain-wide ranking factors.
On the other hand, some non-SEO-related arguments might make a move like this impossible. Feel free to give me some more detailed info on your case, so that I can give you some better-informed advice.
Thanks Eoghan. If I need more info I’ll contact you!
Hallo
Our business is in Canada. The domain in Google Consol is targetting Canada. But we want to target US too. What is the best way? from what I read, I understand that I have to create a subfolder as https://venturefoodtrucks.com/en-us and copy our website on that folder and use the hreflang to specify the preferred audience (from Canada or US) am I right? In that case, should I submit the US version to the search console target it for US? Does Google consider as duplicate content?
Danke
Hi Firouzeh,
You should only create a second version of your website if you want to create different content for the US. If the content you already have for Canada also works for users in the US, you can simply change your targeting setting in Google Search Console (remove Canada).
In order to get good rankings in the US, you should promote your content in the US and also generate backlinks from US websites (no cheating though 😉 ).
I hope this helps! Feel free to ask me more questions if anything remains unclear.
Hi Stefan,
Yes, this move will certainly affect your SEO performance, and not necessarily in a good way. Domain changes are always risky and you should at least make sure that you redirect all important old URLs on the ccTLDs to their new equivalents on the gTLD.
In most cases, moving from ccTLDs to a gTLD has a positive impact on the website’s SEO performance, but I’ve seen this go wrong in many cases. If you like, we can have a chat about what’s important from an SEO perspective and how you can make sure you don’t do any harm to your performance.
Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
Eoghan
Hallo Eoghan,
Thanks for this great article. We are planning to move from a ccTLD to a gTLD using subfolders to represent specific countries. E.g. domain.com/es for Spain.
Once implemented, we are thinking of mapping the original ccTLDs to the coressponding subfolders. E.g. domain.de mapped to domain.com/de
But we are not sure if this would affect SEO. Would such domin mapping make sense? Thsnks for your input
Hallo Eoghan,
If I got an EMD ending in .co.uk and I want to now target one or two other countries, can I rank on first page of other country local G search results using same domain ending .co.uk?
.com is not available and I want to avoid setting other sites up and just keep it to one site.
Danke
S
Hi Sunny,
It’s not impossible to achieve good results with a .co.uk domain in other countries, but when targeting several countries with the same content, it’s almost always best to choose a gTLD (generic top-level domain) that’s not automatically associated with a country.
If .com is not available, have you considered other gTLDs? With all of the new gTLDs that are now available, you might find something that fits your website.
Ich hoffe, das hilft Ihnen. Bitte lassen Sie mich wissen, wenn Sie weitere Fragen haben.
Hallo Eoghan,
Thank you for an excellent article. It has certainly gotten me thinking -:
• We have a ccTLD (atravelco.in)
• We’ve noticed a lot of clients are now coming from abroad, and not just India
• But we are nowhere in the google searches in us/uk/de/ae etc. – where our new clients are coming from, and I want to fix this
Fortunately, I also own atravelco.com – but I’ve not done anything with it.
Plus, we’re renovating the website as well
I thought I should:
• Launch the new website on the gTLD
• Set 301 redirects from the legacy ccTLD to the new .com gTLD (but only for the “product pages”)
Do you think this is an okay strategy?
Will it drastically reduce my organics in the short term?
Danke!
And just to add –
The Google console doesn’t have any option to change my country.
(.in ccTLD, target = India looks like)
Hi Akash,
This sounds like a good strategy for expanding your international reach, but you’re right, there is a risk of short term traffic losses when you switch domains. If you prepare the migration well, you can reduce this risk.
Why do you only want to redirect product pages? It would be best to redirect all pages, or at least all pages that are generating impressions and clicks in search engines or traffic from other sources and all URLs that have backlinks.
You’re also right about not being able to change the international targeting of your .in domain in Google Search Console. Google automatically associates ccTLDs (country domains) with the corresponding countires and doesn’t allow you to change this setting (more about this here: https://www.rebelytics.com/hreflang-annotations/#step3).
Please let me know if you have any further questions!
Danke!
I do have follow up questions 🙂
1) Assuming I’m running the .in and the .com concurrently with 301’s running from the .in to the .com …. what about my GA code? Can I simple put the same thing on .com as well? Or is it more nuanced than that?
2) Should I completely do away with the .in domain? As per your article above, my reading is no. As we have local offices here.
But then, we’ll find that there is duplicate content between both so how should that work? Won’t that penalise me?
3) Currently we have two “google business” entries where were collect reviews and pics. One is for the Delhi office. And the other is for a bangalore office. Does this tie in with the migration strategy at all? If someone in London searches for us, what would they see?
Thank you!!
Hi Akash,
Sorry about the delay. Here are my replies to your follow-up questions:
1. You can use the same GA tracking code on several international domains, or you can create different properties with different tracking codes. If you expect a lot of traffic from one international domain to another, it might make sense to use the same tracking code, so that you can easily track sessions across the domains (with cross-domain tracking). There are probably other factors that weigh in, depending on your circumstances, but in most cases, it won’t make much of a difference.
2. You can keep you .in domain to target users in India and use your new domain for international users. In this case, you wouldn’t need any redirects from .in to .com pages, but you should link both versions with hreflang. You can find more information on hreflang here: https://www.rebelytics.com/hreflang-annotations/
3. I guess your Google My Business entries in India will not have any impact on search results in the UK, neither negative nor positive, so I don’t really see any implications for your internationalisation strategy.
Ich hoffe, das hilft Ihnen! Bitte lassen Sie mich wissen, wenn Sie weitere Fragen haben.
Hallo Eoghan.
Thanks for the article – it is insightful
I have a question that I cannot seem to find an answer to anywhere and maybe you can provide some clarity.
At the moment our site is on a gTLD (.com) but is targeted at Ireland (.ie). I have been redirecting the ccTLD to the gTLD and all the links have been build to the gTLD. I am thinking that the ccTLD might perform better for SEO in our target market. I’d prefer not to reverse the setup i.e. have the site on the ccTLD and then redirect the gTLD to it (although this might be the best option). I am considering building a carbon copy of the site on the ccTLD and using the hreflang in the header to direct traffic to whichever site is relevant. The issue with this is that I would have two installs to maintain and update which ideally I don’t want to do. Is there any plugin’s or a method that you might be aware of that could suffice. I do want to maintain our search engine ranking on the .com side, but want to improve our ranking on the .ie – it appears that .ie are favoured in search results.
Vielen Dank im Voraus.
Hi Keith,
Thank you for your interesting question. I’m afraid there is no simple answer.
If you are only targeting users from Ireland, then I agree what a .ie domain would probably be the best way to go. But don’t you ever get requests from the UK, the US, or other countries? The great thing about you current .com domain is that it works well for users all around the globe.
Having two identical copies of the same website is never a good idea. Google would probably decide to fold the two versions into one and only show one of them to all users, so your entire plan might not work.
Switching from .com to .ie would also be associated with a certain level of risk, as domain switches almost always cause harm. Google has to process the new content and the new domain has to build up trust from zero.
I think the best thing for you to do right now would be to stick with your .com domain. The potential benefit you might get from switching to a .ie domain is not worth the risk and the additional effort. There are probably also other things you could do to optimise your website for Irish users more, which would not involve a potentially dangerous domain switch.
Ich hoffe, das hilft für den Moment. Bitte lass mich wissen, wenn du weitere Fragen hast.
Thanks, Eoghan
All very valid points. My only problem is that TLD even though it is targeted for Ireland, rarely appears in the top 10. Nearly all domains that do are ccTLD (.ie). Checking our domain authority on various sites such as Majestics, ahrefs etc… and comparing it to the top performs, our stats appear stronger.
The mind boggles 😉
Hallo Eoghan,
Thanks for the insight.
Well I’m using a gTLD (DezinoGraphist.com) but it mainly targets India but now I want to expand my footprints to other countries like Australia, US & Canada. Because this is a very small business, I want to keep a single website and thinking of taking multiple ccTLDs and redirect (301) to my main gTLD, ie. DezinoGraphist.com
My question is, will this help in country specific SEO and also should I submit all ccTLDs individually in Google Webmaster even though all are redirecting to same gTLD.
Vielen Dank im Voraus
Hi Harpreet,
Thank you for your interesting question.
Redirecting several ccTLDs to your gTLD will only help the SEO performance of your gTLD if the ccTLDs were previously online and have links pointing to them. If you’re talking about ccTLDs that you registered at some point, but never used, there will be no SEO benefits.
Creating Google Search Console properties for the redirected ccTLDs won’t do any harm, but it will probably not be very insightful if the ccTLDs have never been used before.
Ich hoffe, das hilft Ihnen! Bitte lassen Sie mich wissen, wenn Sie weitere Fragen haben.
Thanks Eoghan for your quick support. You are right, these ccTLDs are never used before. Further, I want to ask if Google tend to lower the ranking of my gTLD if they see ccTLD properties redirecting to the single gTLD? If not then I might use it to get some presence on country specific google search results, ie. google.com.au or google.ca etc.
Hi Harpreet! No, your rankings will not suffer if you redirect ccTLDs to your gTLD, but you will not get any additional presence on country specific search results either. If you want to get better results on google.com.au or google.ca, you should work on improving the overall quality of your website. You can also think about ways of making your business better know in those markets, so that more website from the countries in question link to your website. And if you can think of a way to create content that is relevant for those countries, or localise your existing content for those markets, you can host that content in country directories on you gTLD. All of this will help, but I’m afraid that simply redirecting ccTLDs to your gTLD won’t. I hope this helps!
Thanks a lot for your valuable support Eoghan 🙂
Hallo Eoghan,
First of all, congratulation for your post and for the work you have done answering each question.
I have a new scenario that it is not been shown here. Let discuss if we can find the best option.
We are planning to change from ccTLD to gTLD but the problem is, we started the main project in https://www.exoticca.com for the Spanish market. The rest of the countries are in ccTLD (exoticca.co.uk; exoticca.fr; exoticca.de).
Now, we are going to open the market in US and we wanted to use gTLD for this market and migrate the rest of domains to /es/, /fr/, /de/.
The thing is, we rank very well in Spain with the .com domain but, now, we are planning to use this version for US, so we can migrate all the content in Spain to /es/ except the homepage (exoticca.com) that will be used for the US market without /us/.
What is the best option for this? Which is your opinion?
Hi Aitana,
Thank you very much for sharing your interesting case. I believe your plan is good – Consolidating all country/language versions on the .com domain will probably benefit your international SEO performance.
I do not see any big problems with placing the new US version in the root folder. I guess that all of your current Spanish URLs are already “speaking” URLs, so you can simply 301 redirect them all to their equivalent in the /es/ directory, and most of the new English URLs in the root directory will probably not clash with the old Spanish URLs. If some of them do, then there are probably ways around this: You currently have URLs like /america and /africa (without trailing slashes), that might look the same in the new US English version. One option to avoid conflicts here could be to 301 redirect /america and /africa to /es/america/ and /es/africa/ and place the new US English content on /america/ and /africa/ (with trailing slashes).
For those URLs that do change languages after the switch (like the home page), you should make sure that you have correct hreflang annotations in place. It will probably take Google a while to figure out what is going on and you will have to accept short term organic traffic losses for your Spanish content.
Ich hoffe, das hilft für den Moment. Bitte lassen Sie mich wissen, wenn Sie weitere Fragen haben.
Hallo Eoghan,
Thank you again!
I thought the same, the best option in my case is just what you said using the different URL with the trailing slashes.
The problem in the current homepage exoticca.com hasn’t any other solution. We will have to wait until Google detects that the language has changed to English and the last version in Spanish, now will be in exoticca.com/es/ using the correct hreflang.
I hope this scenario helps anyone in your community.
Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
Hallo Eoghan!
I think I have read through this blog and watched a video of you speaking to the ccTLD and GTLD migration. I inherited a marketing/domain strategy that is currently ccTLD. The .Com receives a ton of traffic but the international sites (.co.uk, .fr, .jp, .sg, etc) receive a fraction of the traffic. Though their traffic is local to the country, I have been doing a lot of research on migrating all other domains to a subdirectory strategy on the .Com. For reference, the .com has a domain authority of 40 where the other sites are between 6-14.
To my understanding, we SHOULD get better traffic in international markets if we migrate to the .Com as GTLD if we redirect everything properly? We are in the process of migrating our site over to Site Core so that we can at least have all sites on one platform. Our current situation is very hard to manage with a small team. We are also not doing much international SEO.
If our .Com site is the better performing site now, if we move to subdirectories will http://www.dynacast.com/es (for example) start to rank better because it now has power from the .com?
Hi Taylor,
Herzlichen Dank für Ihren Kommentar.
Yes, generally speaking, you can expect a better performance with country directories on one global .com domain than with your current ccTLD setup. It is not guaranteed that it will work out in your case though and every domain migration comes with a risk. I would recommend to analyse the situation carefully before you make a decision. This article might help you assess the risk of a potential migration: https://www.searchviu.com/en/seo-priority-website-relaunch/
Your domain strategy is one of many factors for international SEO success and if you’re not taking care of other factors (like hreflang annotations, to name just example), then a change from ccTLDs to a gTLD might not have a positive impact at all.
I am generally strongly in favour of global gTLD strategies, especially for companies like yours, but they’re not the silver bullet for international SEO challenges.
I hope this reply helps you for now. Please let me know if you have any additional questions. I’ll be happy to help.
Ok I see, thank you very much for explaining. Great article.
Cindy
Hallo Eoghan,
Thank you for this excellent post. This certainly helps us in our research into our problem.
Our company is also exploring the possibility to merge our ccTLDs into one gTLD.
We are a company that operates in the market of business presentation products.
Within our company we had the philosophy to create a separate webshop for each productgroup and for each target country.
For example: productX.nl / productY.de / productZ.co.uk etc.
The domain names relate to the product, not our company name.
The cumulation means that we now have dozens of small webshops in different countries.
All products have an affinity with each other, so from UX point of view it makes sense to collect the products on one general website.
In the future, we want to sell more multiple product groups and I foresee problems with the manageability of the large number of domains. To be honest, I have to say that we are already experiencing the problem of manageability.
I’m researching the idea of combining all product groups in one webshop, and then transferring them to a new gTLD, where we diversify per subdirectory per target country.
The new structure will be: .com/en, .com/de, .com/en, etc.
In my research into a good structure, I also came up with subdirectories on the gTLD.
From what I see, it’s mainly big brands and companies that apply their structure in this way.
We are an internationally operating webshop, which sells its own products as well as products from third parties.
Could the domain structure also be positive for us, or would it be better to use ccTLDs for the generic shops, so brandname.nl, brandname.de, etc.?
Many of our niche shops have little authority and backlinks, so the hope is that new product groups will be able to benefit directly from the success of one generic website.
What would be the impact on SEO for us, if there is anything to say about that?
Hi Remco,
Thank you very much for your interesting and detailed question. Having read my article, you probably already know that I am generally in favour of merging everything into one gTLD 😉 Still, it is obviously always a good idea to assess the risks and potentials and make a careful decision.
Without knowing the details of your operation, I would say that your SEO performance can benefit from creating one international shop on a gTLD, especially if you already know that lots of your small domains have issues with small numbers of links.
I would also ask myself if you really need country directories on your new shop, or if language directories would be enough? Check out this website as a very positive example: https://www.ecom-ex.com/. They have one country directory for the UK, but all of the other directories are international language directories, so the French directory is for all French speaking users worldwide, the Spanish one for all Spanish speaking users, the Dutch one for all Dutch speaking users, and so on. This makes the international directory structure even simpler, because you don’t need one directory for every country+language combination.
Another option would be structuring your directories by currencies, as seen here: https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/. This is another good way to avoid needing one directory per country.
In general, the less different versions of your website you have, the easier it is to manage and the better it is for your SEO performance: There are less URLs that have to be crawled and your total number of positive ranking signals, if you want to put it that way, is shared by a smaller number of URLs, so every version has higher chances of building up a good performance.
Ich hoffe, das hilft dir erst einmal! Bitte lass mich wissen, wenn du weitere Fragen hast.
Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
Eoghan
Thank you for taking the time to respond, and I understand your point.
I think there is a difference in information websites compared to commercial webshops.
Perhaps due to the fact that we sell products directly through our website, a lot of content depends on both language and country; think of selling price, selling currency and shipping costs for example.
For example, we can offer a product in German via http://www.website.com/de, in Euros with shipping costs, to a German customer.
We can then offer the same product in German to a Swiss customer at http://www.website.com/ch, in Swiss Franc, with shipping costs to Switzerland.
Also, the product feed to Google will be different for Google Shopping Germany compared to Google Shopping Swiss.
In order to maintain as much freedom as possible and to keep the User Experience as high as possible (a Swiss customer sees the most relevant information/data for him), we have virtually no other choice.
At least, this is my thought; maybe you see it differently in this context?
Hi Remco,
The challenge is to find a way to structure your content so that you create the minimum number of website versions that is necessary, but no more. You most likely need different directories for German speaking users in Germany and Switzerland because of the different currencies, but do you need different version for German speaking users in Germany, Austria, Luxemburg and Belgium, or could these be served with one website version? Shipping costs can be displayed on one page for different countries without a problem, like Amazon does here, for instance: https://www.amazon.de/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_left_v4_sib?ie=UTF8&nodeId=201910850. One reason to separate these countries, on the other hand, would be if you actually had different prices in different countries with the same currency.
I hope this helps for now!
thanks for your quick answer. If I check nfon.net, it has been redirected to https://www.nfon.com/gb/. If the domain nfon.net was the german cctld domain, why would this domain be redirected to the gb version instead of de. Obviously the company is German so the majority of the traffic is german. Can you provide the same graph with a comparison of nfon.net vs https://www.nfon.com/gb/?
nfon.net is redirected to https://www.nfon.com/gb/ and your data are comparing the gb website with the main domain, the german one. I think if you could show https://www.nfon.com/gb/ vs nfon.net, it would make more sense? We will see if the gb website benefit from the migration.
Hi Cindy,
nfon.net does not redirect to nfon.com/gb/. All URLs on nfon.net currently seem to redirect to their exact equivalent on nfon.com, so the “.net” is just replaced with “.com”.
Examples:
nfon.net > nfon.com
nfon.net/telefonanlage/ > nfon.com/telefonanlage/
etc.
When you access a URL without country directory on nfon.com, you are automatically redirected to the correct country directory, based on your location. That’s why you end up on nfon.com/gb/. When I access nfon.net, I end up on nfon.com/es/, as I’m based in Spain.
So the redirect chain that is happening to you is nfon.net > nfon.com > nfon.com/gb/.
After the migration in 2014, all URLs on nfon.net were redirected to their equivalents within the German directory on the new website (nfon.com/de/). These redirects stayed in place for several years, but they were changed to what I described above more recently. It would obviously have been better to keep the old redirects in place.
nfon.net never had any visibility in the UK, so it does not make sense to compare nfon.net with nfon.com/gb/. The new version of nfon.net is nfon.com/de/ (or simply the entire nfon.com domain in the German SERPs, as explained in my previous comment), so it only makes sense to compare it this way.
Ich hoffe, das hilft Ihnen! Bitte lassen Sie mich wissen, wenn Sie weitere Fragen haben.
Hallo Eoghan,
I have a quick question. When you compare a market to before, you don’t use the subdirectory. Quote: “After the mess had been cleaned up and a new international SEO strategy had been agreed upon, the German website version was migrated from nfon.net to nfon.com/de/, and here’s what happened to their SEO visibility in Germany:”. I look at the graph, the URL used seems to be the man domain without the de element.
What I will be interested in seeing is nfon.com/de/ vs nfon.de ? Do you have this comparison?
nfon.net is the main domain and you transferred about 6 new sites to it, obviously, the visibility should improve but if you cumulate the different countries before migration, do you get more visits on the new website?
Cindy
Hi Cindy,
Thank you for your interesting question. The reason I was able to use the entire nfon.com domain for comparison and not just the /de/ subdirectory is that the visibility is calculated per Google country version – The visibility of the entire domain in the German Google search results is pretty much exactly the same as the visibility of the /de/ subdirectory, as only the /de/ subdirectory ranks in German search results (the same applies to other countries that a version of the website exists for).
Here’s a comparison of the old German website (nfon.net), the entire new website (nfon.com) and the German subdirectory (nfon.com/de/):
You can see that the visibility of the entire domain and the German subdirectory are more or less exactly the same in German Google results. The slight differences are due to a few pages not within the /de/ directory that rank in German results, like single login pages on a subdomain or English language pages that rank in German results for English search queries.
Ich hoffe, das hilft Ihnen! Bitte lassen Sie mich wissen, wenn Sie weitere Fragen haben.
Hallo Eoghan,
This is a great article and I thoroughly enjoyed the read!!
Imagine the following situation:
– A new start-up launching
– Selling primarily in 1-3 European markets (English and German speaking)
– Brand.COM without pre or surfix is not available e.g. Brand.COM is taken but only used to redirect to another site not competing with the start-up
– Brand.CO without pre or surfix is available
– Brand.DE, .UK (.co.uk taken but not used), .CH etc are all available
What would you do?
a.) Would you chose the Brand.CO with subfolders e.g. /DE etc. for all activities across all markets?
b) Would you chose the Brand.DE and other CCtlds for key markets individually? And use the brand.CO for all other international markets? And in future migrating to a gtld. Basically prioritising the (I would assume) improved conversion ability for German market using the .DE (customer thinking we are German and ship from Germany)
What would you do? .COM vs .CO
Would you rather take a Brand.co (without any pre or suffix needed) OR would you opt for a .COM but using a pre or suffix e.g. Brandshoes.com or GetBrand.com?
Again, the US is not a key sales market.
Hope you can help! Vielen Dank
Hi Rob,
Thank you very much for your interesting question. The domain ending .co ist the ccTLD for Colombia, so I would not recommend using it like a gTLD.
Without knowing the specific situation of the startup, it’s hard to decide if ccTLDs or a gTLD would work better. In general, an international gTLD strategy has some advantages (as described in the article above), so if you can get a good gTLD that also works from a branding perspective, I guess that’s a good way to go.
Ich hoffe, das hilft Ihnen! Bitte lassen Sie mich wissen, wenn Sie weitere Fragen haben.
Hi, great article. Excellent. We have a brand gtld as in .brand. We are redoing website now and would like to transfer from brand.com to .brand. We are in travel space, SEO is critical. Advice would be great. I would think there is a way to treat all tlds to left of dot in .brand as one site. This is a part of our efforts to reach an international market. Currently mainly USA.
Hi Brendan, thank you for your interesting question. Switching from a .com to a new gTLD can work out alright if all redirects are set up correctly, but you should expect to see short- to mid-term losses. I’m not too sure about the second part of you question though – Are you suggesting that different domains with the same new gTLD ending might be treated as one site by Google? I don’t want to say that this is impossible, but I would still advise against moving from one .com domain to several different domains with the same new gTLD ending. The associated risk would be too high from my point of view. I hope this answers your questions!
Hallo Eoghan!
Thank you for this excellent article; it is insightful.
Need your help with one question!
We are a business based in Canada and using a gTLD for our business. Currently, our companyname.com e-commerce website is ranking for over 1300 keywords in Canada, and over 95% of transactions are from Canada while accounting for 80 % of traffic users.
Now the company plans to launch in the USA, and we are in this dilemma of evaluating the multiple possibilities for TLD Migrations & ccTLDs. Note both the website will carry/share the same products with the same URL key but different price and currency. Also, some of the content pages are more relevant for the main website(current Canadian website), so those will not be shared with the US website.
Please see the different scenarios below and comment on the appropriateness and further suggest which one do you think is the best option for us and will have the least impact on SEO for Canada. Considering the right pages are ranking for the right locations and avoid duplicate content as well.
Scenario 1
Create subdirectory .com/us for US users and no change for Canada website
Canada- companyname.com (No change; existing-main website)
USA – companyname.com/us (New )
Scenario 2
Create subdirectory .com/ca for Canadian users and .com/us for US users
Canada- companyname.com/ca (New)
USA – companyname.com/us (New )
Scenario 3
Migrate from gTLD (generic top-level domain) to a ccTLD (country code top-level domain) for Canada and Use/optimize our current brand.com to rank only in the USA and not Canada.
Canada- companyname.ca (New; gTLD To ccTLD)
USA – companyname.com (New; Optimize existing to rank only in the USA)
Also, which scenario do you think will have the least scope of work?
Hope you can help!
Himanshu
Hi Himanshu,
Thank you for your questions. In your situation, I would recommend scenario 1 for the following reasons:
– No risk for your SEO performance in Canada, as the existing content is not changed.
– The new US directory benefits from the existing “reputation” of the .com domain and does not have to start from zero.
– Easiest setup and maintenance out of the three scenarios, as there are no URL redirects required (no content migration involved).
Some things you can do to make the most out of scenario 1:
– Use correct hreflang annotations between the CA version in the root directory and the US version in the /us/ directory.
– Be very careful with IP-based redirects. I would recommend not using them at all, but showing a message to users from the US who land on the CA version (and vice versa) instead, where they can choose to switch to the other version, if they want to.
– Try to localise the content on each version as much as possible, so that the differences are no just in the currency and price – Use the two country’s names in title tags, descriptions and the content of both versions and, if applicable, account for different uses of English in both countries (although, depending on which industry you are in, there might be no differences at all).
– Provide a country switcher that links from each page to its equivalent within the other country version.
I hope this helps for now. If you have any questions about anything I’ve said, please don’t hesitate to ask.
Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
Eoghan
Hallo Eoghan,
Thanks for a very detailed and thorough piece as usual.
What do you propose as a way around for a site that is currently setup on Language targeting aiming to move to a more granular Country+Language targeting to preserve all the authority.
Currently URL’s change by language:
e.g domain.com/en – English (all countries)
domain.com/es – Spanish (all countries inclusive of Spain, Mexico, Colombia etc.)
domain.com/fr – French (all countries inclusive of France, Morocco, Canada etc.)
We want to move to a country (selective)+ language(top tier EN/FR/ES/DE) targeting:
e.g domain.com/gb/en/page or domain.com/en-gb/page- English (uk) – search demand is high
domain.com/us/en/page or domain.com/en-us/page- English (usa) – search demand is high
domain.com/us/es/page or domain.com/es-us/page- Spanish (usa) – search demand reasonable
We aim to have over 18 Countries + 11 Language rollouts and would have the sub-directories translocalised but only keep those with search demand available for indexation.
How do we preserve the authority from current language setup domain.com/en (very high authority) to migrate to for instance domain.com/gb/en/ or domain.com/en-gb/ versions?
Do you think there is a work around where domain.com/en (language) can retain or leak less of its authority? are the configurations domain.com/en and domain.com/en-ca (although not in the right structure, ok to use?
Hi Khushal,
Thank you very much for your interesting question. In a case like this, I would probably recommend keeping the existing generic language version as they are (without changing their URLs) and adding new country-specific directories for the countries you want to target with their own content versions.
You would then have a new country version for some countries like UK, US, etc. and an old generic language directory for all users that use the language, but are not located in one of the countries directly targeted with their own content version.
You can only hope that a correct hreflang setup, good content localisation and internal linking help Google understand the new structure and that the performance of the old generic language versions is transferred to the new country versions in the corresponding countries.
I hope this reply helps you for now. Please let me know if you have any further questions.
Thanks for fabulous article.
I have a slightly different question; we have a .co.uk (https://www.wikijob.co.uk), which we’re considering migrating to https://www.wikijob.com. It’s the only domain we have, but there are almost 1m monthly visits on the .co.uk, and I’m a bit concerned about the switch. Should I be?
If you know anyone who’s done this before, I don’t mind paying for an hour or two of their time to have a conversation about their experiences.
Hallo Eoghan,
Thank you for this great piece of content, it was very useful.
I would like to ask your opinion in the following case:
We have a website with .fi ccTLD as our main target country and our company is located in Finland, but we have subdirectories on this domain, so .fi/en and .fi/de. We would like to expand and target the German market as well, but this domain structure just doesn’t make any sense for me as the .fi/de subdomain I think only target German speaking customers in Finland. We own the .com and the .de domains as well, but those are currently parked domains and redirects to the equivalent language version of the site . In this case, what would be the best solution:
-Moving the English content to the .com domain and German content to the .de ccTLD so we can target more precisely and keep the .fi as we have good ranking in Finland
-Or redirect the whole site to the .com domain and create subdirectories, so .com for global, .com/fi for Finnish market and .com/de for German speaking countires? Won’t this option hurt our ranking position in Finland? (I know that in short-term, redirections and moving can cause ranking loss)
Personally I would go with the first option.
Thank you for your answer in advance!
Regards,
Nikolett